Jose Torres, a Hall of Famer, former light heavyweight champion, chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission and Olympic silver medalist, succumbed to a heart attack in his native Puerto Rico.

He was 72 year old.

Torres counted among his friends literary lions like Norman Mailer, Budd Schulberg and Pete Hamill. He’d impressed them all with the skill he showed with his hands, and those hands were similarly blessed when he hung up the gloves, and he authored two books. Torres wrote “Sting Like A Bee,” a look at the incomparable Muhammad Ali, and also “Fire and Fear,” a take on the complicated slugger Mike Tyson.

Torres also contributed to the website ibopboxing.com, which morphed into thesweetscience.com. Please click on this link to check out Torres’ archives, and check back to TSS to read Ron Borges’ homage to “Chegui.”